Oregon Experience: Searching for York

How History Gets Told

Public Memory
G Mitchell Reyes, Lewis and Clark College

York’s personal story is not well known, though the story of Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery is.  How is it that we as a culture remember some pieces of history and not others? G. Mitchell Reyes of Lewis & Clark College describes the role of public memory in our understanding of history. Excerpted and edited from interview transcripts.
    
Not only do individuals have a memory but collective groups of people also have a memory.  We, as Americans, like to remember the past in particular ways.  We like to amplify some of the good things, like World War II and our performance in World War II.  And we like to de-amplify some of the less glorious things in our past such as slavery or the Vietnam War.  

So that's what public memory is: the mobilization of the past for present needs. We're constantly crafting our public memory for political purposes in the present.

Public memory is ostensibly about the past.  But, in fact, it's nothing of the sort.  It is about the present, our present desires, our needs to remember the past in particular ways.  Memory always works for the people doing it, not for the people who are remembered. The people who are dead and gone, they don't really need memory of any sort.

York is a great example of what's at stake in public memory because everybody knows about Lewis & Clark and the lore of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. If you go to Astoria and you go to the memorial at the end of the Lewis & Clark trail, their literature about Lewis & Clark and about the trials and tribulations they overcame, a narrative of glorification and heroification. But there are some conspicuous absences, and one of them is York.  York is nowhere to be mentioned in this narrative of heroism that is remembering the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

But York played an important role in the Expedition as an emissary between the Corp of Discovery and the Indian tribes that they were encountering.  Because York was black and because many of the Indian tribes held it as a warrior color, he was seen as having immediate authenticity and respect with the Indian tribes. And so he could play a role of emissary between those two groups — an incredibly important role to play.  And yet, our public memory does not include his contribution.

Interpretations of York: Sambo and the Superhero
Darrell M. Millner

Reprinted with permission from the Oregon Historical Society.
Excerpted from York of the Corps of Discovery: Interpretations of York’s Character and His Role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. - Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall 2003, Vol. 104. No. 3

In addition to re-examining the role that York played in the expedition and other aspects of his life, it is also useful to analyze the way the York story has been shaped and presented in the two hundred years that followed the expedition. In essence, for each generation since 1805–1806, the York story has been presented in a form that reflects the interracial behaviors, politics, and dynamics of that generation. The scholarly treatment of York can be categorized into two broad interpretive traditions: the "Sambo" and the "superhero."

In the Sambo tradition, York's role and contributions are systematically reduced to behavior that was considered fitting and appropriate for an individual who is passively and submissively content in a condition of chattel slavery. The Sambo stereotype of the black male evolved as a way for pro-slavery advocates to defend that institution by proclaiming that slavery was the proper condition for blacks to occupy because it was consistent with their natural inferiority. This characterization began to appear in the founding father generation shortly after the American Revolution as the contradictions inherent in the establishment of a slave state in the emerging democracy became apparent. It gained strength through the antebellum era and climaxed in the Reconstruction years following the Civil War when many advocates of anti-black activities relied upon it to justify creating a subordinate role for former slaves. According to the stereotype, Sambos possessed an inherent set of personal characteristics, qualities, and inclinations that defined both their capabilities and their aspirations. All of this made it apparent that slavery was the best condition for blacks to occupy, not only for the good of the general society but also for the good of the Sambo. In this tradition of scholarship, the York story functioned to validate current racial theories and behaviors imposed on blacks by a dominant and hostile majority population. A black man such as York could not have appeared to be manly and heroic, as white members of the expedition were portrayed, because that characterization would have called into question the theories and practices of prevalent racial public policy. As a result, the creation of York as Sambo often relied on quite questionable techniques, such as ignoring the positive aspects of York's character and his contributions, distorting some incidents to cast them in the most unfavorable light possible, and projecting onto York unsubstantiated qualities such as a thick "Negro" dialect and an insatiable sexual appetite.

Within the "superhero" school of interpretation, York has been elevated to near superhuman status and his contributions to the expedition were unsurpassed by others in the Corps of Discovery. The superhero York is the quintessential role model, a courageous, ingenious, brave, and self-sacrificing black hero who has overcome all of the obstacles that slavery and a hostile frontier threw at him. This York ultimately prevails; he is a figure not only for blacks to admire but also for them to emulate. The practitioners of the superhero tradition were no less willing than those in the Sambo tradition to sacrifice accepted scholarly methodologies to further their objectives.

….

The primary reason that discussion about York's status in the Corps is necessary today is the concerted effort by earlier writers to portray his role as lowly and uniformly insignificant. From Satterfield's declaration that York was very low in the expedition's pecking order to Montgomery's implication that York occupied an inferior "place," some recent scholarship continues to lean heavily on the depiction of York's role as consistent only with the expectations associated with the classic place of slaves in the settled racial society of the states east of the Mississippi River during the time of Lewis and Clark. In reality, York functioned in a unique set of circumstances during the expedition years. Any interpretation that does not acknowledge and incorporate that reality will miss the mark.

Read the full article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly

Interpreting History
Tom Wilson (William Clark)
Astoria, Oregon
President - Pacific Northwest Living Historians

Many of the principle roles in Searching for York were played by Living History Interpreters, volunteers who have educated themselves about certain figures from the past or a particular historical time period and then portray that person and era in public presentations. Tom Wilson, who plays  William Clark in the program describes his experiences portraying historical figures.

Helping to make history come alive for myself, and others, is a passion that started slowly with me and now runs through my veins.  As I learn the stories of those who went before us and helped to pave our paths, I find much of history is like a gigantic onion.  As I peel one layer off and think I understand it, I find another layer, then another and another.

When I portray historical people either in third- or first-person, I realize, in many cases, the overwhelming odds and circumstances these people overcame.  After each program that I do — and the studying and research that goes with it — I am always in awe of their strength, courage and passion.  It gives me a clearer perspective of my problems and concerns that, in comparison, seem so small.  I feel honored to be able to share their stories in a way that hopefully does justice to the people I portray.  My goal and hope is that those who come to listen walk away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the past and the people who made history.

Native Peoples and York
Roberta Conner, Director, Tamastslikt Cultural Institute

Some of what we know about York comes from the oral histories of various native peoples who encountered York as the Corps of Discovery made their way across the continent.  Here are some thoughts on this from Tamastslikt Cultural Institute Director Roberta Conner. Excerpted and edited from interview transcripts.
    
When you look at Lewis and Clark's travels through our country, that's one point of view. That's through the lens of people who were raised more or less similarly.  And it only represents the view of the traveler, the transient.  It doesn't represent the perspective of the people who lived there, who were not moving through an area that was new to them but were living in a place they'd lived for thousands and thousand of years.

One of the remarkable things about asking Tribal elders about first contact stories - not about Lewis & Clark stories, but about the first story of the first sighting or meeting of a white man in their family's oral tradition — is that you begin to see how it's possible to distinguish, for example, the Lewis & Clark Expedition from the David Thompson expedition, or other explorers or white men that might have been encountered in our travels to the east or the south or the north, or to the coast.

And, there are some heralds.  One of those is York.  Because, when an oral history of a tribe reflects an expedition of white men with a black man present, there's really only one in the early contact stories.  And when you look for an expedition story of these strange new people traveling with an Indian woman and black man, and a child, and a dog, those are all markers that this is an oral history that ties back to Lewis and Clark.